TRAVEL: BALI

I had never been to Bali before this trip so I didn’t really have any idea of what I wanted to do when we arrived. Luckily, I had booked my trip through Expedia, who sent a rep to our hotel. We booked our tours through them.

Things to do

The first day, we took it easy, chilled by the pool and explored the hotel. The following day, we booked into a local spa for a couples package. We were pampered to within an inch of our lives in the Baliwis Spa. I also had my first ever petal bath!

We booked a full day tour, the following day, to see a Volcano – Mt Batur, visit a Batik ‘factory’, a local art gallery, a local jewellers, the rice fields, the monkey temple in Ubud, a coffee plantation, and a local community temple. It was incredibly interesting to see the balinese people worship in the temples and I LOVED the monkey temple!

At the coffee plantation, we tried Luwak coffee for the first time. It is the most expensive coffee in the world. I have never tried to drink anything that an animal has excreted before so this was a big adventure for me. If you don’t know anything about how Luwak coffee is made, click the hyperlink above.

On Wednesday, we arranged a trip to see the elephant park and to go white water rafting (read about rafting here). I was a little apprehensive to see the elephants as I wasn’t sure how they would be treated. As far as I could see the animals were well treated and we fed them treats.

On Thursday, we booked a cruise to Lembongan National Park. While there, we docked at a pontoon which offered everything from glass bottom boat, diving, aquanauts, snorkeling, slides and parasailing.

I went parasailing and the experience was nothing short of awesome! The views were spectacular and to be that high up in the sky was really really cool.

How would you compare Bali with other destinations for holiday? Ive always put Bali on my 2nd choice rather than 1st.. but maybe I need to reconsider?

Niamh Norah Fitzsimons

I have traveled a lot and next to the Maldives and Kenya, this would be my next in line destination.

There is plenty to see and do, the people are friendly and meals and souvenirs are cheap. I didn’t do the ‘typical’ Bali holiday in cheap accomodation. I decided to treat myself and stay in a 5 star luxury resort but I would highly recommend Bali as a destination!